Many scrubbing up floodwater debris as rising rivers recede

Tuesday

Mar 1, 2011 at 12:01 AMMar 1, 2011 at 1:23 AM

Floodwaters not only chased people from their homes and businesses Monday, they left acres of debris for residents to clean up. The cleanup started Tuesday with some flood-stricken residents choosing instead to change addresses.

Lori Monsewicz

About two dozen employees, contractors and customers at the local Ace Hardware store pitched in Tuesday to clean up debris left by 1-1/2 feet of floodwater.

Outside, city firefighters hosed down the parking lot.

“Just helping out our neighbors,” said Firefighter/paramedic Michael Henkel. His father, Capt. John Henkel, said the firefighters were clearing debris for anyone in the city who asked.

Across the street, Norfolk-Southern Railway workers used large equipment to rebuild the tracks after floodwater washed out the stone underneath.

“It was really nice here, but the niceness is outweighed by the flooding,” said Megan Williams, pointing out that people living in three of the four first-floor apartments in her building in the 800 block of Constitution Avenue were moving out.

She, her roommate and neighbors were among more than 50 Stark County residents who were rescued Monday by firefighter/paramedics and neighbors as floodwaters from melting snow and heavy rain caused rivers and creeks to spill from their banks.

ROOMMATES RESCUED

Williams and her roommate, Arica Goffus, were asleep when firefighters knocked on their door at 5:45 a.m. Monday. They were told to move their cars.

But by the time they got the cars to the top of the road, “the water was already up to our ankles,” Williams said.

They went back inside their home and started moving their belongings off the floor. They had been through another flood in September, although it wasn’t as bad, so they knew what to expect.

“We were moving everything up and, an hour later, the water was a foot high at the door,” Williams said. “It looked like floating icebergs going by because you could see the snow and there was a strong current. We just watched. There was nothing we could do. We thought we were safer in here so we just waited for help.”

Rescue crews brought a boat to them through the waist-deep, ice cold water, she said.

“Our Dumpster’s down the stream stuck in a huge tree,” Williams said as she toted her belongings to the back of an SUV. She and her roommate were moving into Goffus’ father’s home until they could find another apartment, she said.

SEEKING SHELTER

County officials set up an emergency operations center and the American Red Cross opened a shelter at Peace Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canton Township. Although a couple came in Monday afternoon, no victims spent the night, so the shelter closed Tuesday morning.

Canton Township firefighters rescued about two dozen people from a mobile home park along the Nimishillen Creek, and Jackson and Plain township firefighters assisted Louisville firefighters in rescuing a dozen more from an apartment complex, said Rich Weber, EMA deputy director. He said Perry Township also helped a family of four from a home surrounded by water.

As water rose around the Stark County Dog Warden’s Office on Mahoning Road NE, Dog Warden Reagan Tetrault contacted the Stark and Summit county humane societies for assistance.

Tetrault said smaller dogs were moved to cages that were at least 3 feet above the floor; 20 dogs were taken to the Summit humane society and six puppies went to the Stark humane society. When EMA officials assured her the water spilling out of Cook Park and surrounding her office had already crested, she left.

When she returned Tuesday, she found more than a dozen small dead fish left on the grass when the water receded.

ROAD RESCUE

Ohio Highway Patrol troopers went to a crash at 11:40 p.m. Monday on State Route 93 in Sugarcreek Township where a Massillon man who’d driven into a high-water area was struck from behind by a Dover man. The Massillon man, whom troopers later charged with operating a vehicle while impaired, walked from his truck. But the Dover man was trapped. He was rescued by boat shortly after Bolivar and Brewster firefighters arrived on the scene.

Before the hour was up, troopers and firefighters were called at 12:17 a.m. Tuesday on Elton Street SW west of Alabama where a Navarre woman had been trapped in her car.

“The current of the water pushed her vehicle against the guardrail,” said Lt. William Weirtz of the highway patrol’s Canton post.

Jackson Township and Brewster firefighters rescued her by boat and took her to an area hospital to be checked as a precaution, he said.

FAMILY RESCUED

William Robb learned on his own that his Constitution Avenue apartment was quickly being surrounded by water as his girlfriend, Angie Baringer, slept.

He stopped downstairs to the check on the neighbor below, 76-year-old Thelma Reed.

Robb said he found her sitting on her bed with a foot of water inside her home. Robb said she assured him she was waiting for family to pick her up. Darlene Jones said she took her mother from the apartment about 10 minutes before firefighters deemed it too dangerous to return to the building where Reed has lived for three years. Jones said Tuesday she was moving her mother into her own Louisville home, which is on higher ground.

Robb had returned to his apartment, waking Baringer, and her 4-year-old daughter, Alexis Baringer.

It was too late to move Robb’s GMC Sonoma or Baringer’s Toyota. Flood debris still clung from it Tuesday afternoon as they awaited the arrival of an insurance representative.

Baringer said she grew up living on an apartment across the street — on higher ground.

“We used to watch the water rise over here all the time,” she said, smiling. Unlike her neighbors, however, she planned to stay put.

“I’m on the top,” she said, pointing out her second-story apartment. “(Management is) going to have to redo the bottom apartments, but I’m staying. They’ve been good to us.”

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